I'd used up all the space on the 4GB SD card bundled with the XL, so I ordered a 32GB Sandisk Extreme card which is listed on Nintendo UK's compatibility page here.

Before starting the switch, I tried to back up the save data using the tool in the System Settings. Apparently, New Leaf save data can't be backed up? Weird. Anyway, I thought it wouldn't matter; what could possibly go wrong?

So I found this guide which tells you how to migrate to a new SD card and followed it to the letter.

I put the new card into the 3DS and boot Animal Crossing as normal. Everything seems to have worked fine. Until I try to load my save and get "Save data cannot be used as it is not the last save data" or something to that affect. What? How can it not be? Even if I go back to the original 4GB card, it says the same thing.

I've seen a lot of threads on GAF where people fuck up and then blame the company for their own stupidity. I don't feel this is one of those cases; I did everything Nintendo told me to, and now I just lost 40 hours of Animal Crossing progress. Nintendo needs to sort their shit out with this kinda stuff. Cloud saves, anyone?

I rang up Nintendo customer support and they were just like "Yeah, just redownload it from the eShop."

I think you can back it up, but you have to do it the same day or not between updates. I'm not entirely sure though, I just know that it is much tricker than the other ones. If I can't change my AC data... I guess I will have this 32 gig card forever FOREVER.

This has me super worried. The fiance has a 200 hour game going and we have been moving the contents of the SD card to Dropbox in case of SD failure, does this mean if the SD card were to die and we put this data on a new card we would be SOL? :O

Right? I was planning on getting a bigger SD card and transfer everything to that but now I'm pretty horrified. I bought AC digitally to break from the fisical games without having to carry more than one game but having to swich the SD to play AC is a bummer, makes no sense.

Right? I was planning on getting a bigger SD card and transfer everything to that but now I'm pretty horrified. I bought AC digitally to break from the fisical games without having to carry more than one game but having to swich the SD to play AC is a bummer, makes no sense.

The lesson here I think is a resounding 'don't buy Nintendo games digitally' because they have no idea how to handle the digital realm up to modern standards.

Sorry you lost your save. I was upgrading 3DS so I knew I'd need a physical copy to guarantee no awful Nintendo game save mishaps in the system transfer.

I ran into a similar problem when getting a new 3DS. Stupid fucking Nintendo protocol. I almost lost my ambassador status on my 3DS because gamestop doesn't have wifi and the systems needed to connect to wifi to initiate a local system transfer. Wtf is that shit

I'll admit I haven't tried this, but I was under the impression that for games where save persistence was critical, you can't *request* a backup, but you *can* delete the game and then you'll be prompted to back it up at that point. That's how you're meant to persist those titles between cards, I believe.

(The point being that if you do it that way, you can't 'play a bit then reset your save')

I'll admit I haven't tried this, but I was under the impression that for games where save persistence was critical, you can't *request* a backup, but you *can* delete the game and then you'll be prompted to back it up at that point. That's how you're meant to persist those titles between cards, I believe.

(The point being that if you do it that way, you can't 'play a bit then reset your save')

I cannot understand why Nintendo wouldn't want people backing up their Animal Crossing save/data..out of all games wouldn't you want to back up AC the most considering all the work and time invested? So dumb.

And this is but one reason why I will never buy a retail digital title....especially one where I have 86 hours invested in a month.

Three physical copies for $29 - one for each family member....thank you.

I just do not understand why the majority loves dropping $30-40 on a digital game release from anywhere, but much less Nintendo. I love Nintendo, but my limit caps out around $10, $15 in special cases until they get an account system. But all my games and their saves are safe and sound on their carts.

I noticed the lack of a backup option for Animal Crossing. Weird, because it's probably the most likely game you'd want to back up considering it's something many people will put hundreds of hours into.

You CAN back up ACNL and MH3U. When you delete downloaded 3DS games, you now have the option to back up the save data first. When you redownload later, it automatically restores upon "unwrapping" the download. This way works even for games that don't allow manual backup (but still not GBA).

AC gaf helping you out in getting later-game stuff and stuff you lost + mess with the clock in order to get everything quickly. Best thing you can do in the situation :/

sucks

Everything This. Post anything you need in the AC thread—there's more than enough people willing to help out. I've found the community here to be super generous. Obviously the time-sensitive stuff we can't touch but we can help out with tools, fruit, bells, and filling up your catalog.

So sorry you lost the time you put in. I would be incredibly frustrated if I lost all the time and work I've put in so far. Hopefully you'll let some of us help gain back some of what you lost.

Only the latest save is valid—all others before it become defunct to discourage tampering with the game. In essence, it's useless. You'd have to backup multiple times per day and hope nothing happens before you can backup again.

If Nintendo provided a competent backup system, it would be on the player. Unfortunately to prevent cheating, there isn't really a backup system at all so if something happens to your data, you start over. Forty hours is devastating enough but there are plenty of people around here who have put in well over a hundred hours in just one month.

Yes, you can back up New Leaf data. From what I've read, with a digitally downloaded copy, the game randomly generates a save file number, and stores it both in the SD card and the 3DS itself. As soon as that save file has been used, the system releases that ID number. So any New Leaf backup data on a PC becomes worthless as soon as the game is played again.

However, it would still seems it would have possibly recovered the OP's town in this case if he had backed up his data prior to transferring it to another card. Maybe not though.. as the 3DS save ID and the latest save ID on the card should match no matter how many times the data is transferred to other cards. Unless the OP loaded his save data (started up AC: New Leaf) then did his card transfer without saving again.

Is there really no sure-fire, 100% impossible to mess up way of transferring to another SD card? That's a bummer, I used my 4gb card for AC and MH3U too. I know there are ways confirmed to work, but really now.

Now I don't know what to do, get a new one now and just swap them whenever I use these games (I'm using the retail versions so swapping action is going to happen anyway), or try the transfer as soon as possible while my losses are the lowest they'll be.

The 4GB SD card that came with my Animal Crossing 3DS XL doesn't even get recognized by my computer whenever I put it in. Now I'm stuck with a 4GB card when I have a 32GB card sitting here until I either get bored of Animal Crossing to the point I don't care about or until Nintendo lets you backup your save.